Pecans: The perfect food

 

A good source of vitamins, minerals, proteins and carbohydrates, pecans are a delicious food for humans, animals and insects. However, only those talented enough to break open the perfect package designed to protect the nutritious food are able to enjoy them.

Pecans are a much richer and healthier food than rice or wheat. Both those grains need to be milled and cooked before they become enjoyable. Rice and wheat have a critical harvest period; rain can damage or even destroy the crop, and efficient harvesting requires expensive machinery. But pecans can hang in the tree or lay on the ground through heat, cold, snow, ice or rain for weeks with no damage and sometimes become even more tasty.

Pecans can be eaten raw or roasted or used to flavor cookies, candies, cakes, pies, main courses, or simply eaten raw.

Pecans can be harvested by machines, but most are still picked up by hand. Children love to pick up pecans; it's like an Easter egg hunt. They aren't quickly bored by the process and their little fingers are very efficient in finding the nuts among fallen leaves.

To feed the hungry, pecans are king. Whether in a third-world country or right here at home, they are perfect trees to be planted in urban settings where the nuts can be harvested by those who need them. If they are spilled along a roadway, pecans are safe from being quickly eaten by animals or insects and are easily picked up days or even weeks later.

The pecan tree itself is majestic. It provides a home to many animals. Pecan trees provide cool shade during hot summer days, but let the warm sun shine through during the cold winter since the leaves fall to form a protective blanket over the soil, its roots and the earthworms.

Wherever soil is deep with ample moisture, a pecan tree can survive on its own for centuries. In groves or plantations, pecans still require less care than most other food crops. Native to America, the pecan is the state tree of Texas and can be found growing in most areas of the state.

The small native pecans have rich oil and delicious taste, although they require more work to remove the meat from the shell. The hybrid paper-shell pecans are large and easy to shell, but have less taste.

The pecan is the perfect tree, perfect in the creek bottom and the home yard.

 

The Garden-Ville Method - Lessons in Nature